Here is another shot taken in the Vancouver Island Military Museum. Not very good of me, but it is very good of my pal in the RCN square-rig whites, pre unification.
The museum, located in Nanaimo, is easy to find on Cameron St, just behind the casino.
A great and welcoming place to visit, it features areas that deal with the War of 1812, WW I and II, Korea, and the Cold War. Excellent displays of Canadian Army equipment, RCN ships and RCAF aircraft.
Highly recommended!

Lord Strathcona's Korea Veteran Still Contributing

This photo was taken in the Vancouver Island Military Museum in Nanaimo. Pictured is former Trooper Pat Patterson, who crewed tanks for Canada in Korea and the early years of the cold war.
Pat is one of the many motivated volunteers who makes the Museum an inspiring place to visit. Here, he's standing in front of a display that features the often-seen photo of Lord Strathcona's tanks in Korea.

Canadian Naval History, courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada

HMCS Bonaventure

Thanks to a mention in the newsletter of a naval organization, I saw a reference to a 1960 National Film Board movie. Fifty-eight minutes in length, An Enduring Tradition presents in a remarkably cogent fashion the history of the Royal Canadian Navy up to 1960. Aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers, frigates, corvettes, submarines, minesweepers, auxilliaries: they are all there.
RCN names to conjure with: Charles Kingsmill, Walter Hose, Harry DeWolf, and many others. "Heart of Oak" and "Roll Along Wavy Navy". Shiploads full of inherited memories, and real ones, diminished by time, stirred up.

A Korean Vet and Lord Strathcona's Horse (Part 3 of 3

Twenty-seven thousand Canadians served in the Korean War. The first fighting units in the theatre were Royal Canadian Navy destroyers HMC Ships Cayuga, Athabaskan, and Sioux. The Army was next, with the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, Royal Canadian Regiment, and the Royal 22e Regiment, the 2^nd Battalion in each case. Also in close support to the infantry were troopers of the Lord Strathcona’s Horse and gunners of the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery. Transport of men and supplies was carried out by the RCAF, and many other support units were involved.

Nearly sixty-three years have come and gone since the Korean War broke out in 1950. Not surprisingly, even the teenaged soldiers and sailors who were there are old men. The Korean Veterans Association has fewer and fewer members, having resolved early on that only personnel who served in Korea could become members. Soon the Association will be gone, and with it, another of Canada’s living memorials to the generations of warriors who have served their country so well.
In the photo above, Harold Finnegan, who served with Lord Strathcona's Horse, is toasting the memory of a departed comrade. Most of the other men in the photo have since passed away.

A Korean Vet and Lord Strathcona's Horse (Part 2)

Harold Finnegan was a member of the Special Force that fought in Korea under the Canadian and UN flags. The Special Force was a mixed bag of men and boys who signed up in droves, flooding recruiting offices. Many, like Harold, were youngsters who had “missed the fun” when WW II ended in 1945. Others were veterans whose lives as civilians didn’t work out for one reason or another. And they certainly didn’t know what they were getting into. 

Why a “Special Force”? The Canadian army was exhausted and run down after herculerian efforts in World War II. And when the call went out to members of the United Nations to do a “police action” Canada, as a charter member of the UN, wanted to be there. So, the thinking went, rather than send battle-scarred regiments which had settled into peacetime duties, recruit a new bunch: hence a Special Force, whose members signed up for eighteen months—plenty of time to do Canada’s duty in the Hermit Kingdom, right?

Fortunately for the Canadians who volunteered, they had excellent leadership. And, at the end of the day, the men who volunteered did their country proud. More than five hundred of them did not come back from Korea. Harold Finnegan is one who did.

 Harold's medals, above, include the Canadian Forces Decoration with bar, UN, NATO, Korea, and Vietnam service decorations. (The latter was earned prior to the Vietnam War, following the illfated Paris Peace Accord.)

A Korean Vet and Lord Strathcona's Horse

On Tuesday of this week, I spent a very enjoyable couple of hours with Harold Finnegan in the Lynn Valley Legion, North Vancouver, BC. Harold is a Korean War veteran. He was with Lord Strathcona’s Horse in the “Land of the Morning Calm” from August 1950 until May 1952. I am always interested in meeting veterans, whichever service they did their time in. But not only was Harold with the Straths, he was in C Squadron—the same squadron in which my father served in World War I.

It was with some trepidation that I presented Harold with a copy of Soldier of the Horse, my novel about the Canadian cavalry in the Great War and asked him to comment on it. I was very gratified when I received an email two days later:

“All I can say about your novel is "WOW"

I lived Tom's experience and couldn't put it down, finished it Thursday evening.”

Many thanks to Harold. More about him soon in "Forces With History".